10 things you need to know for Wednesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:

1. POSSIBLE THAW BETWEEN U.S. AND IRAN. President Rouhani says his nation is ready to enter talks “without delay” but vigorously denies that his country was seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

2. KENYAN LEADER PROCLAIMS VICTORY OVER TERRORISTS. President Kenyatta declares three days of national mourning, saying at least 61 civilians were killed, along with six security forces.

3. SEN. CRUZ VOWS TO SPEAK AGAINST HEALTH CARE LAW UNTIL HE CAN’T STAND. The Texas senator says “this grand experiment is simply not working.”

4. PAKISTAN QUAKE KILLS 39, POSSIBLY CREATES SMALL ISLAND. Witnesses report seeing a small island appear off the coast of the port of Gwadar after the temblor.

5. SYRIA: “WE HAVE NO FOOD” With the world’s attention focused on the regime’s chemical weapons, relief organizations are warning of the risk of mass starvation across the country.

6. WHAT EMERITUS POPE BENEDICT WROTE TO AN ATHIEST. Benedict denies covering up for sexually abusive priests as he emerges from his self-imposed silence.

7. TAKING THE GOOD WITH THE BAD IN COLORADO. Six people previously unaccounted for in the flooding are found alive, but new spills are reported in water-damaged oilfields.

8. WHY SCIENTISTS SAY THEY ARE 95 PERCENT CERTAIN ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING. Some climate-change deniers look at the number and scoff, but as a U.N. panel gets ready to weigh in, others say that number is too low.

9. AT PENN STATE, SOMETHING LOST THAT CAN BE REGAINED. The school will gradually get back football scholarships taken away over the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal, the NCAA announces.

10. “I FEEL SO MUCH SMARTER” A 99-year-old Iowa woman who started school in a one-room school house, then left high school one credit shy of graduation in 1932, receives her diploma.